A new organization is looking for members to support its cause of providing financial aid to local first responders and their families if they are injured, disabled or killed in the line of duty.

The Cheboygan County 100 Club was founded about a year ago by Dick Kolb, who saw a need for such a group in the area. A 100 Club attempts to repay the people in public service who have risked their lives to protect others.

Through the 100 Club, aid can be provided to volunteer firefighters, police personnel, ambulance personnel and other first responders who are killed, injured, disabled or sickened in the line of duty.

“The goal of the 100 Club is to provide financial support to the families of these people who protect our property, safety and health and become unable to provide an income to their families because they are injured or killed while protecting our families,” Kolb explained.

Kolb said the first 100 Club was created in Detroit in the early 1950s.

“A car dealer started it,” Kolb explained. “He had heard about a Detroit policeman killed in the line of duty, leaving his widow and kids behind. He gave her $1,000 on a first visit, and promised to come back in a month.”

Kolb said the man then wrote a letter to 99 other people in Wayne County asking them to each donate $1,000 to the policeman’s family, and to pledge to donate on an annual basis. The letters were sent to people of wealth, such as the Ford family.

“Every one of the 99 responded,” Kolb said. “So began the 100 Club of Detroit.”

Since that time, the downstate 100 Club is now raising enough money to put orphaned kids through college, Kolb noted. The Detroit membership is by invitation only and is $250 a year, he added.

“We are hoping we can do at least as well as they have,” Kolb said. “We just need more people to get involved.”

Kolb brought the idea to Cheboygan County after serving as a volunteer firefighter and officer in Tuscarora Township for nearly 30 years. Although he’s retired now, he remembers at least two families that could have used help, but there was no group to assist locally at the time.

“Workman’s comp can take a long time, and the bills keep coming in,” Kolb said. “In this county, most of our firefighters are volunteers and work a day job, so if they get injured and they aren’t getting paid by their employer, it can be tough.”

Kolb said the Cheboygan County 100 Club is the 8th chapter to form in Michigan and is the first chapter to be formed in a rural area.

“Forty-five states have chapters, and it has recently spread around to 42 countries around the globe,” Kolb noted.

So far, the Cheboygan County 100 Club has raised between $5,000 and $6,000. The Club offers annual memberships with dues that are collected by Jan. 1 of each year.

Memberships include a bronze level for $50, silver level for $75, gold level for $100, platinum level for $500, and two memorial memberships in honor of Robert Jordan or Raymond Hoff for $1,000. So far, the only $1,000 membership is the Indian River Eagles.

Individuals can also pledge a one-time donation if they prefer, Kolb noted.

“Besides getting businesses involved, we would also like to have citizens participate,” he said.

Kolb said the group started soliciting in Indian River and initially made contact with the businesses there. The 100 Club is now in the process of contacting all Cheboygan Area Chamber of Commerce members and will eventually work on the Mackinaw City area. The group is also working on making the area firefighters, police personnel, ambulance personnel and first responders aware of the 100 Club in case a need arises.

A website is in the works and the organization has a presence on Facebook.

The Cheboygan County 100 Club has a board of directors made up of Kolb, Ralph Ochs, Bobbi Balazovic, Leonard Page, Timothy MacArthur, Bruce Gauthier and Ronald Wallin. For more information or to pledge a membership, call Kolb at 231-238-9098.